Defense carried the 49ers, but the offense has question marks

by yeah stub

The 49ers defeated the Eagles 26-21 in a thrilling win on Sunday, but there are more issues about the offense despite the victory.

Yes, the 49ers won the game and yes, the scoreboard is all that matters, but the offense has concern with the injuries and questionable play calling in crunch time. The 49ers lost both Anthony Davis and Vernon Davis in the middle of the game as they left with knee and back injuries, respectively.

Defensively, they pitched a shutout with all Eagles points coming on special teams or on defense. Colin Kaepernick had several throws that were important, but he still made several ‘rookie’ type of errors throughout the game.

The first was the interception returned for touchdown by Malcolm Jenkins where Kaepernick had no effort to adjust. He stared down his receiver on third down and failed to notice the safety picking up Brandon Lloyd by forcing the ball into a slant route. Of course he also rebounded in this game with key throws to Anquan Boldin, Stevie Johnson and even Michael Crabtree on third down.

His second mistake was the timeout he called right before the 49ers eventually punted the ball. They lost a timeout when they were supposed to let the clock run for a delay of game penalty, but the mental breakdown had the team with one remaining which was used near the end on a challenge.

On a positive note, the 49ers chose to run the ball and Frank Gore had 119 rushing yards on 24 carries. There were several explosive plays which put the 49ers in a good position to score. However, the 49ers couldn’t keep their foots on the gas pedal when kicking field goals. There were still delay of game penalties that slowed any momentum down and the Eagles were still in the game despite never scoring points on offense.

Credit to the defense and Vic Fangio for stopping the Eagles’ high powered offense. They weren’t on the field much, but had to make plays when needed. The touchdown by Stevie Johnson was due to the short field given by the forced turnover by Antoine Bethea. The ball was loose and it bounced right to Perrish Cox which gave the 49ers offense some life.

The 49ers failed to score an offensive touchdown in the second half on their own, settling for two field goals when they could’ve put the game away. The Eagles turnover sparked them in the second half, but the offense needed help from the defense for it to be possible. There is still plenty of work to be done for Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh on this offense as they move forward to Week 5.